Local author crashes the publishing world
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Author Jesse Mattson sits outside the dormitories at Norwich University in Northfield, where he is a communications student. Stefan Hard |
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By SARAH HINCKLEY
Staff Writer - Published: October 26, 2008
Jesse Mattson knows how lucky he is.
At 24 years old, the Norwich University student is celebrating his first published book, the fruit of the first 200-plus-page story he ever wrote.
"I fell into an unbelievable situation," Mattson says about getting "Into the Den" published almost exactly a year after he started writing it. "I couldn't have been more lucky."
It's not the first time. Luck had led him to start writing the novel, which he says has elements of autobiography but is an independent tale.
In August 2007, while leaving a party drunk, Mattson drove his vehicle into the woods at 50 mph, flipped it over and slammed into a telephone pole.
"I came to when I was upside-down in my car." He says the accident left no mark on him. "I didn't even have blood from the glass hitting my hand — nothing."
What the incident did leave was clarity.
"Jesse is a recovering alcoholic" is the last line of the "About the Author" note in his book, published by Bryant Park Press of New York City. After destroying his car (and losing his license for three months), Mattson recognized how lucky he had been and decided to spend the next year getting sober. Attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and writing were integral parts of that process.
"The book doesn't deal with alcoholism, as far as alcoholism," says Mattson, who lives in Essex with his father and commutes to school in Northfield twice a week. "The stories in the book are about dealing with your own life and your own issues. … Turning the camera back on yourself is a scary thing. A lot of times I was angry based on fear. … Writing the book has made it tremendously easier to deal with things."
From the perspective of Sam Conway, 19, Mattson takes readers on a tour through the brutally honest and imaginative mind of a young man attending an extra year of boarding school in Maine. It is peppered with pop-icon references, wise insights and edgy language. As the title suggests, "Into the Den" is a reflection of Mattson's choice to journey inward.
"My hope is that the book can sort of reach out and help somebody," he says. "I wouldn't be here if someone didn't reach out and help me."
Though Mattson credits his whole family for being supportive, one person helped him take a big first step.
"My father was the one who got me into AA," he says. "He actually went with me for the first couple of weeks."
Like Conway, Mattson attended boarding school in Connecticut and has spent years fighting unknown inner demons. Both he and his protagonist were born in California and moved to Vermont at a young age. Both struggled in school, and their physical descriptions are nearly identical.
Why is his fictional character's life so parallel to his? "I guess for lack of imagination," says Mattson candidly. "A lot of the details that don't matter are me."
He did some writing in high school, but English wasn't his focus.
"I was more of an athlete in high school than a poet. I think I liked writing. I think that's probably why I stuck with it."
Another factor was the help he got from a teacher who recognized Mattson's talent at weaving words into an image. During his senior year of high school, Mattson took an independent class with this teacher and just wrote. She is a character in his book and continues to be a mentor.
"It's nice to have someone be honest with you," he says. "I think of it as a tremendous gift."
Mattson started "Into the Den" shortly after his life-changing car accident. He let a friend read it soon after. That friend then asked if the book could be passed along to another friend — whose mother owned a publishing company. By January the company, Bryant Park, had decided it wanted to publish the book.
Mattson will get a portion of sales of the book and the movie rights, if it gets to that point.
Mattson admits he hesitated at first. His writing was personal, not done with the aim of getting it published.
Yet, "you have to really not want to do it to not take that opportunity," he says. "I am who I am, this is my life. … If you can put yourself out there and show people who you are, it's sort of a sign of strength, rather than weakness. Everybody has problems. It makes you stronger to air them out."
Mattson continues to attend AA meetings. He has a year and a half left until he earns a degree in communications.
"If I could make a living being an author, I'd like to do that," he says of his goals after graduation, which could include screenplays and scriptwriting. "I like the behind-the-scenes, and I wouldn't mind being on camera."
Mattson says he just wrapped up the sequel to "Into the Den" and ultimately plans three books with Conway as the lead character. The second one continues to echo his life. In the third, which he has started working on, he plans to branch off into less familiar territory.
"The final one is totally fiction — I promise," he says.
Contact Sarah Hinckley at sarah.hinckley@timesargus.com.